Up Close And Personal

Another revelation from the Game Developers Conference came with the announcement of the next Battlefield 3 expansions. Departing slightly from the highly successful formula of Back To Karkand, it seems each of the three expansions will have a theme.

First up is Close Quarters, with indoor frantic firefights spotlighting infantry combat. Hopefully the experience will include loose and complex action rather than the bottleneck, borefest of Metro. Developer DICE, mentioned “vertical gameplay” as a feature of the design; could we be looking at Battlefield 3: Die Hard? Yes, please.

Close Quarters is scheduled to release in June, while the next two expansions are slated for later in the year.

The following expansion will be Armored Kill — happy now tank fans? — which brags the largest map in Battlefield 3. That’s going to be one gigantic warzone. The shelling will commence in the autumn — or fall, depending on your continent.

Finally — and appropriately — the last expansion announced will be End Game; so far, we only know that it will be released in the winter.

Exciting times ahead for BF3 players. I can only hope that DICE meets the same quality of Back to Karkand this year.